Anarchy's Mystery

Chapter 25

Morning seemed to take forever to come and by the time the watery sun had began to rise through the still falling rain, Natalie had been awake for long over 24 hours. Her makeshift shelter had fallen early in the morning and she'd been soaked through to the bone for hours. She grabbed her bags from the branch and made her way down the tree, putting all her stuff in the one bag. Feeling surprisingly untired, she made her way through the winding streets towards HQ.

"Panther?" A voice behind her asked and she dragged herself to her work. She sighed and turned around to face Simon and Hugh.

"If either of you say anything I'm gonna kill you. Even with the chromium skin." She said, knowing her eyes were bloodshot, she was drenched and she looked like death. The two men took a quick glance at each other then looked back at her.

"Just gotta ask... Did you sleep in the rain?" Simon looked confused as he took in the bag of stuff in her hand.

"Yes but that's irrelevant. What are you two doing here so early?" Natalie asked as she continued walking to HQ.

"We got a notification that Impaler left last night and they want us to interrogate her because she's 'difficult'." Hugh rolled his eyes and caught up to Natalie.

"Wait if she left how are you going to interrogate her?" Natalie turned back to the men as they walked through the doors to HQ.

"She came back last night." Simon replied.

"But if she left why would she have come back?" Natalie asked, the two men shrugging their shoulders. "Can I sit in on this one?" She said, her wet hair dripping on the carpet.

"Sure, you might want to get some dry clothes on first though." Hugh said. "We'll be in there in 15 minutes. Room 2." Nodding, Natalie ran off to get changed.

10 minutes later, she threw her back in a locker and pulled her hair up into a messy ponytail, still dripping, as she sulked. All her clothes had gotten soaked in the storm along with everything in her bag but the photo album, journal and diary that were at the bottom of the bag. She tugged at the sleeves of the normal issued Renegade uniform which had sleeves that were just long enough for comfort but didn't have nearly enough pockets. With all her wet clothes still being washed and dried, she didn't have any choice as she made her way into the interrogation room. There were three seats on one side of the room and one seat on the other. Natalie, Captain Chromium and the Dread Warden were all seated by the time that Alannah was brought in to see them. She raised an eyebrow appearing to be towards all of them, but Natalie knew it was to her. She shoot her head slightly. They didn't know. Alannah smiled.

"'Morning Cap! 'Morning Dreaded One! 'Morning Tiger!" Alannah giggled and Natalie rolled her eyes.

"'Morning Crazy." She replied, a smile falling on her face. The two other Renegades looked at her in confusion but she just shrugged.

"To clear up any confusion on the matter, Frostbite is a lying, deceiving, cheating-"

"Impaler..." Simon warned.

"Cow." Alannah finished, tossing her hair over one shoulder. "Just thought I'd let you know, because you've clearly fallen under her spell." She announced, leaning back in her chair as well as she could whilst chained to a chair that was stuck to the floor.

"Impaler, it has come to our attention that you left your cell in the early hours of this morning and - what were their words - oh yeah, gave sass to your 'superiors'." Hugh quoted as Alannah laughed.

"Dude if I had left, why would I have come back to be locked up in a cell?" She asked, her eyes twinkling. "And before you go around accusing me of leaving, show me the proof."

"One of our most trusted teams has given a report and their word." Simon cautiously replied.

"And I've given you mine. But of course, a Renegades word is trusted far more than an Anarchists." She glared at Simon and Hugh. "But we're not quite so different, are we Natalie?" Without looking at Natalie, Alannah grinned.

"Hey, don't bring me into this! I don't want to be caught up in any argument against Genissa! She's hard enough to deal with as is." Natalie protested.

"You know that's not what I meant." Alannah replied, her gaze shifting to Natalie.

"Okay do you two know each other?" Simon burst, looking between the two girls.

Happy 2019!